Early Retirement Blog

Can a Hippy Retirement be the secret to an Early Retirement?

Could going back to the simple low consumption lifestyle of their hippy youth, be the solution to the retirement disaster, facing the  baby boom generation?

When the American Baby Boom generation was getting all groovy 40 years ago, the high-water mark for the American economy, household consumption looked completely different than it does today.   Back then, the typical American household had one car, one t.v., one phone. The family would take one vacation per year, usually spent at the grand-parents house, and if a kid was lucky, they would get to see Disney land once in their childhood.

Today, the typical American household has three cars, three t.v. ‘s, three phones.  And, things that didn’t exist 40 years ago like, computers, cable, camcorders, internet, dvd players, and on and on. Not only more stuff, but bigger stuff, bigger cars, bigger homes, bigger t.v.’s. Yesterday’s hippies have become today’s mega-consumers.

What if you could reverse time?   If you are a baby boomer, going back to the low consumption lifestyle of your youth, enables you retire with much less savings.

Getting rid of one of your cars in retirement enables you to retire with $180,000 less in savings.   Moving from your big suburban house to a condo could allow you to retire with $225,000 less in savings.   Getting rid of your mini-storage unit, where you store the “stuff” you’ve accumulated over a lifetime, enables you to retire with $45,000 less in savings.

Early retirement is yours if you wish, but only if you can make the leap, from consumption to conservation.   A commitment to reducing your materialistic consumption, in order to conserve your financial resources, is required to achieve early retirement and financial freedom.

If you can make that leap in your mind, back in time to when you wore patches on your jeans,  your mother shopped with coupons, and your dad washed the family car.   If you can remember a time when money was a means and not an end.   Then reducing your consumption to retire early will be an easy and joyful journey.

When you are ready to take the journey into early retirement,  take a trip to Green Retirement, and learn how to retire early.